


Home

by Archadian_Skies



Series: keeping your head up [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Found Family, Gen, Good Parent Hank Anderson, Grief/Mourning, Moving On, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24553810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archadian_Skies/pseuds/Archadian_Skies
Summary: Grief makes a home feel like a house, grief unties the tightly woven canvas of family, grief chases away the warmth until the house is but a rickety shack, empty and yearning. Worse yet is that dogs can’t understand grief. Dogs don’t understand why the small human it’s grown up with suddenly isn’t there. Dogs don’t understand that no matter how long they sit outside that closed bedroom door, the small human won’t come out to play with them. The home isn’t a home anymore without Cole, it’s just a house with a failure of a father and a dog that can’t understand grief.Until Connor disobeys the 'No Androids Allowed' sign on the door of Jimmy’s Bar and buys him one for the road.
Relationships: Hank Anderson & Connor, Hank Anderson & Connor & Sumo
Series: keeping your head up [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1720468
Comments: 5
Kudos: 104





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Detroit: Become Family event on tumblr (dbh-found-family)

Grief makes a home feel like a house, grief unties the tightly woven canvas of family, grief chases away the warmth until the house is but a rickety shack, empty and yearning. Worse yet is that dogs can’t understand grief. Dogs don’t understand why the small human it’s grown up with suddenly isn’t there. Dogs don’t understand that no matter how long they sit outside that closed bedroom door, the small human won’t come out to play with them. The home isn’t a home anymore without Cole, it’s just a house with a failure of a father and a dog that can’t understand grief.

Hank picks up the fragments of his life and tapes up boxes of Cole’s things as if sealing them shut will seal up his grief. He keeps Cole’s favourite aeroplane pyjamas and his favourite dinosaur socks, and then donates the rest because he can’t keep them, he can’t have them sitting in his garage sealed up like offerings in a tomb. He sells the house because it isn’t a home anymore.

Dogs don’t understand grief, but Hank’s not sure humans understand much better. He nearly goes crazy in his grief, his career slipping through his fingers as he drowns his sorrows in alcohol and Sumo is just enough, just barely enough to keep him tethered to his mortal coil. He makes plans though, for when he wins Russian Roulette at last, and Sumo will go to Jeffrey because Jeffrey’s son Kendrick used to come over to babysit Cole and loved them both to pieces. 

It’s November 5th and an android buys him one for the road before they investigate a homicide. Its name is Connor, the android sent by CyberLife and Hank couldn’t give a shit. The android is persistent, insistent, and annoyingly stubborn for something that’s meant to obey orders. Hank loses his kitchen window to it. Hank loses his prejudices, loses his apathy to it, to _him_ , to _Connor_ as they trip over and stumble head first into the android revolution. They are more than machines, they feel anger and fear and frustration and they yearn for acceptance, for kindness, for love. Hank very nearly loses Connor to the android revolution, but there he is in the early hours of the morning, hesitantly approaching him at the Chicken Feed and then Hank’s dragging him in for a hug and the kid trembles in his arms as if only just processing all that’s happened.

There’s a place for Connor at Jericho, declared by Android Jesus himself, but Hank lets Connor know there’s a place for him at his house too. Connor chooses his house over Jericho.

The spare room gets turned into a bedroom. They do an Ikea run because yeah everything can be ordered online but Ikea is a liminal space and time isn’t real in there and there’s also Swedish Meatballs and it’s a shame Connor can’t eat. They spend an afternoon making furniture and Hank honest to god laughs when Connor finds a part that won’t fit anywhere and the android expresses frustration very vocally and it’s the first time he’s laughed in years. 

Android Jesus and Pals go to the White House and the Sentient Life Act passes on December 1st 2038, just shy of a month since Connor disobeyed the No Androids Allowed sign on the door of Jimmy’s Bar. Androids are legally recognised as living, sentient beings with the right to a surname, to a job, to a wage, to housing. 

Connor goes from Connor RK800 Assistive Unit to Detective Connor Anderson two days and twenty-three hours after Connor quietly asks if he can share his surname. What the kid asks at first is ' _may I have it- no, not have, it isn’t something to take- though, in the English language that is still correct grammar_ -' and Hank had laughed so as not to cry and he says ' _take it kid, it’s always been yours.'_ What the kid asks next is ‘ _is it alright if I call you dad?’_ and Hank doesn’t even try not to cry. He says _‘okay but not at work’_ and Connor says _‘I’ll be sure to address you by your proper title, then, Lieutenant Dad’_ and Hank laughs while crying.

Connor fits into his life like a puzzle piece from a different box; not quite the missing piece but still a perfect fit. Sumo no longer has a small human but he has a large not-human who takes him on walks and gives him a bath and brushes his fur and kisses his big head. Sumo has another bed to jump onto and another set of legs to lie on. Sumo has another door to wait outside, and now it opens. Hank looks at Connor and he doesn’t see the android sent by CyberLife he sees a young man finding his feet in a brand new world and by god Hank is going to do his best to see him through it. It’s the least he can do in return for Connor saving his life in more ways than one. 

Grief makes a home feel like a house, but love makes a house a home. It’s sappy and stupid but it’s true. 

* * *

Something’s up, something’s got him pretty rattled; Hank can see Connor’s red LED glaring from where he sits across from him.

“You alright son?”

“I’ve received a report from CyberLife.” He looks up, expression troubled. “Ms Chloe has flagged an important discovery from the recently unlocked files.” The android pauses as if having trouble processing the information. “There’s- I have a brother. He was meant to be deployed here but he was stolen from CyberLife before activation. I- I have to find him.”

Hank lets that sink in, lets the information wedge itself into his life and he already finds himself rearranging everything. The spare room was turned into Connor’s room, and the other room had been his home office since before Connor moved in, though he never uses it. It could become another bedroom after some shuffling, after another Ikea trip. It _will_ become another bedroom, he thinks.

“Okay. Where do we start?”

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise prequel!  
> [I'm still on this hellsite.](https://archadianskies.tumblr.com/)  
> 


End file.
